Narwhal Tusk Coat Stand

This is a coat and umbrella stand is made from a narwhal tusk. Many people used to believe these tusks came from unicorns. A narwhal is a small type of whale and the males have a long tusk. 'Unicorn horn' like this was used in medicine as late as the 1600s. They were said to ward off poison and epilepsy. It was extremely expensive and was worth more than ten times its weight in gold. This tusk is one of two collected by the Hull Literary and Philosophical Society which first established a museum in 1822.